Dallas: It is BIG

Early tomorrow morning I am heading to Dallas, Texas. For those who have not been there, it is the supersize version of the USA. Everything is big and then some.

I will be renewing friendships with Christians there and preaching at Trinity Hillcrest Church on two consecutive Sundays. During the week I will - in between steaks and Mexican food - share some other teaching. There is a wedding between two friends to attend, and my brother in law also resides in Texas.

Since the internet works in Texas I will still be electronically accessible. As they say in Dallas - yall have a good time!

Bishops, Lambeth and the BBC

Hensley Henson was bishop of Durham 1920-39. He lived during a world that is long gone, but via books and papers it is quite instructive to visit it!


I was recently given a copy of Chadwick's biography of Henson, Henson's 3 volume Autobiography and a selection of Henson's letters.
Together they make riveting reading; illumining much of what goes on in the Anglican church today. Despite the many thousands of words it is difficult to place Henson - as I suspect he would have wished it.

Here is one quote from a letter he wrote (with quill in duplicate!) in 1943. Make of it what you will:

"Christianity, as presented by the BBC is no longer a religion of Redemption, but rather a Christianised humanism which patronises God and advertises man. I don't like it, and I wish it did not receive such substantial and continuing assistance from Lambeth and Lambeth's tail of busy and thoughtless agitators..."

Better Preaching

I have been writing a section of my PhD which is about becoming a better preacher. This morning I was using Augustine's sermons on John the Baptist, where Augustine reflected on the nature of voices, words and the Word.

One recurring point is that the Word must dwell within the preacher's heart, so that all words spoken are actually those of the Word - Christ. The main implication of this appears to be a conscious experience of humble dependence on Christ. He is the one who speaks, gives words, enlivens a preacher. Reflection upon this was said by Augustine to have the following effect on a preacher:

'Creaturae infirmitas cedit creatoris uirtuti, et priuati amoris superbia deficit in publicam caritatem.' s.293C.2.

Which translates to something along the lines of:

‘The creature’s weakness yields to the creator’s excellence, and the pride of private love melts into public love.’

Now there is a piece of preaching advice that goes well beyond technique!

Deacons & Elders

Last night I enjoyed a pastoral training meeting with some Presbyterian ministers and elders. The training was led by the head of an American seminary who has also spent many years leading a church.

Unsuprisingly the session began by looking at the qualifications for elders and deacons, in the pastoral epistles. In previous discussions I have listened to, teaching has focused on the actual qualifications - the character and teaching ability. This was the first time I had heard somebody focus instead on the importance and complexity of raising up men who would take on the roles of elders and deacons. The broad adult education as background, the personal mentoring of the pastor, the prompting from the congregation and prayer of other elders - all these and other points impressed upon me the earnestness with which reformed presbyterian churches take the spiritual leadership of their churches. Many questions were raised which are clearly hinted at or assumed in scripture, such as the way the roles seem to be to a certain extent permeable; the appropriateness of theological examination/interview before being appointed to the office of deacon.

In my (limited) experience, Anglican evangelical churches seek to recruit large numbers of people in the church to perform a variety of tasks - preparing food, producing service sheets, welcoming, singing etc. etc. In that model many are involved, but there is little need or incentive to assess spiritual maturity or theological knowledge. I was impressed with the Presbyterian aspiration to promote eldership in the local church as a worthy task which demands study, character, insight and gifting. So for example, it was a matter of great concern and effort on the part of the speaker last night, to train men to be elders who could visit a home and discern if there were spiritual problems in a family. As we were encourgaed to reflect - men like that in a church family do not simply fall off trees, they are rare and need to be pro-actively formed and trained.

Another point I appreciated was that in the appointing of elders, we should look for those who serve and support others. An elder is to be that sort of man - he will not become that kind of person simply by being appointed. As Paul wrote, 'It is a worthy task.'

Themelios Journal Facelift

Themelios is a journal that has over the years made a terrific contribution to evangelicalism. I remember being intrigued by copies prior to deciding to study academic theology eleven or so years ago. It has undergone an internet based facelift-

Prof. DA Carson has taken over as the new editor of Themelios. The journal is now online. I have an article, based on part of my MPhil, in the first new edition. You can download it for free here:

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios

The invisible Bible

I have just finished reading the debate from the Church of England's synod yesterday, on whether to allow provisions for those who reject female episcopal headship of churches as unbiblical.

The thing that struck me reading the debate was how unbiblical both sides of the debate were. That is, regardless of viewpoint argued for, the intellectual terms of reference which framed contributions was in the end secular.

The issue was one of discrimination, fairness, rights, hurt, equality - and in the words of several, even one of excitement and importance. One gets the impression that the synod of the Church of England is imprisoned within an institutionalized culture of secularity. Pro-Woman speakers argue for their rights to equality. Anti-Woman speakers plead for generosity and tolerance. Where was the exegesis of the pastoral epistles? Why did some of the highly qualified scholars not bring some doctrinal analysis to the debate?

One was permitted to argue for any viewpoint, but the actual language and philosophical assumptions are secular. That being the case, guess what sort of conclusions will be reached?

Silent Reading

I have been working on a section of the PhD entitled 'Becoming a better Preacher.'
The aim of the section is to show that scripture radically transformed Augustine's life and then informed his preaching in a related manner.

A nice link I discovered is that in the Confessions Augustine remarks on how surprised he was to find that Ambrose, in his sermon preparation, read his books 'silentio'. Silent reading was, in the classical world, rare. Augustine makes several comments on the possible reasons Ambrose read silentio.

Several chapters later we come to Augustine's famous conversion scene in the garden, where he picks up Paul's epistle to the Romans, reads 13:13 and immediately feels conviction and conversion. Guess how he says he read? That's right - silentio.

Reading silently was such an unusual thing to do, that for Augustine to record that he did it at that point, is most likely an attempt to link his experience of conversion through scripture with Ambrose's preaching of scripture. Augustine's conversion is usually misrepresented as a strange idiosyncratic conversion on the basis of a strange children's song being overheard. In fact he drops in the literary clue that the sermons of Ambrose were still at work. The pagan politician and orator would devote the rest of his life to attempting to give others the scriptural experience he enjoyed late in life.

Pink shirt Vicar

As a follow on from yesterday's comment on the secular media, check out this BBC video of Melvin Tinker. Melvin is a Church of England vicar and was invited by the BBC to visit a Gay Pride march while in Jerusalem last week.

I guess it is partly the proliferation of technology that permits him to present his views fairly - but whatever the reasons it is refreshing to hear a conservative perspective allowed voice in the British public arena.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7476627.stm

Secular Journalism

One of the reasons Augustine is an interesting character to read is that he represents the interface between church and secularity - in many ways.

He debated whether the church should use state troops to enforce orthodoxy; at first doing so then regretting it. He was the consummate secular politician before conversion. He wrote the great apologetic work 'City of God' which responded to secular fears and accusations against Christianity.

Evangelicalism needs to ponder the complexities of relating to the secular world. The issue is one of those recurring topics that frequently needs re-examination. Bonhoeffer attempted it with his description of the ultimate and penultimate. The ultimate is justification (in the broad sense of standing before the cross and experiencing salvation.) The penultimate is everything that goes before that - human nature (He seems to have coined the term 'mannishness' for this), life experiences, culture, sin and good deeds. He makes the astute point in his Ethics that 'the ultimate is clearly the most important thing, but it does not negate the value of the penultimate.' He makes all kinds of qualifications against potential misunderstandings and builds the case that both those who exalt the penultimate over the ultimate, and those who let the ultimate negate the penultimate, actually do so out of a rebellion against God's power as creator. It is a provocative argument which puts both 'ecological social works idolatry' and 'evangelism only' in the same theological box of sinful rebellion.

Bonhoeffer is one of many theologians who followed in Augustine's footsteps and saw the need to reflect on the relationship between secular and sacred. Others include Luther, Calvin, Thielecke, Aquinas and most recently DA Carson has contributed a stimulating book on the issue.

It occured to me that some stimulus to thinking about the secular/church relationship may be found in recent reporting on the Anglican communions's struggles, and the GAFCON conference. I have noticed an improvement in the level of analysis, even handedness and engagement with issues from secular reporters. In the past I have been very frustrated with Ruth Gledhill's reporting in the Times - she often appeared to misrepresent the conservative viewpoint. However I have been struck that her articles recently make a real effort to understand the conservatives, and she seems to treat them with respect. Similarly, a few nights ago Channel 4 gave Gafcom only about thirty seconds of passing comment - but the BBC gave an in depth summary which even made the point that the issue is the nature of the Gospel. I almost fell off my sofa to hear a newsreader use the word 'Gospel'!

A point in case is this article from the Spectator:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/811011/a-very-english-coup-and-the-end-of-our-national-church.thtml

Now of course it is feisty and conservatives are referred to in rather negative terms - that is part of the cut and thrust of comment writing. But I feel the level of analysis and presentation of viewpoints is much more fair than I have in the past been used to.

How can these things be used to aid our ministries while not undermining them? Does the City of God need to ponder again what it means to be 'mingled through time and space with the City of the World'?